Agile Methodologies

[Buela_Vigneswaran]

Agile Methodologies

1. What is Agile?

• Agile is a mindset and framework for software development focused on flexibility, collaboration, and customer satisfaction.
• It emphasizes iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between cross-functional teams.

2. Core Principles of Agile

• Based on the Agile Manifesto:
  1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
  2. Working software over comprehensive documentation.
  3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
  4. Responding to change over following a plan.

3. Popular Agile Frameworks

1. Scrum:
   • Roles: Scrum Master, Product Owner, Development Team.
   • Artifacts:
     • Product Backlog: List of features/requirements.
     • Sprint Backlog: Tasks for the current sprint.
     • Increment: Completed and potentially shippable product.
   • Ceremonies:
     • Sprint Planning.
     • Daily Scrum (Standups).
     • Sprint Review.
     • Sprint Retrospective.
2. Kanban:
   • Visual management using a Kanban board.
   • Key principles:
     • Visualize workflow (columns: To Do, In Progress, Done).
     • Limit work in progress (WIP).
     • Focus on continuous delivery.
3. Extreme Programming (XP):
   • Focuses on technical excellence and best practices.
   • Key practices:
     • Pair Programming.
     • Test-Driven Development (TDD).
     • Continuous Integration (CI).
     • Refactoring.
4. Lean Software Development:
   • Originates from Lean manufacturing.
   • Key principles:
     • Eliminate waste.
     • Build quality in.
     • Deliver fast.
5. SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework):
   • Designed for large enterprises.
   • Combines Scrum, Kanban, and Lean at scale.

4. Agile Artifacts

• User Stories: Small, manageable descriptions of functionality (e.g., “As a user, I want to reset my password so I can access my account”).
• Story Points: Unit to estimate the effort required for a task.
• Burn-Down/Burn-Up Charts: Visual representation of project progress.

5. Agile Metrics

• Velocity: Amount of work a team can complete in a sprint.
• Lead Time: Time taken from task creation to completion.
• Cycle Time: Time taken for a task to be actively worked on.
• Cumulative Flow Diagram: Tracks work items across stages.

6. Benefits of Agile

• Faster time-to-market.
• Improved customer satisfaction.
• Flexibility to adapt to changing requirements.
• Better collaboration and team communication.

7. Challenges in Agile

• Difficulty in scaling for large organizations.
• Resistance to change from traditional processes.
• Lack of proper documentation in some cases.

8. Tools for Agile Project Management

• Scrum/Kanban Boards: Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps, Monday.com.
• Collaboration Tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom.
• CI/CD Integration: Jenkins, Circle CI, GitHub Actions.